Easter bonfire: how much does fine dust damage the environment?
Created: 04/13/2022, 12:25 p.m
The Easter fire is a tradition in many regions of Germany.
© Imago
The Easter fire is part of the tradition in many regions of Germany.
However, tradition is also said to be harmful to the environment - because of the fine dust.
After the long Corona-Aus it is possible again this Easter*: to stand with neighbors and acquaintances by the blazing flames of the Easter fire and welcome spring.
But the custom is suspected of polluting the environment.
Particularly in focus: fine dust.
Easter fire: How bad for the environment is it really?
Easter fires clearly put a strain on nature.
The culprit is clear: the fine dust produced during burning.
According to the German Federal Agency for the Environment and Nature Conservation (BUND),
a larger fire with garden waste produces about as much smoke and soot particles – including fine dust – within six hours as 250 older buses do in one day
.
This can have an impact on health: fine dust can damage the respiratory tract and the cardiovascular system, for example.
However, Ute Dauert, who is responsible for assessing air quality at the Federal Environment Agency (UBA), emphasizes that damage caused by Easter fires can depend on several factors:
The weather has an influence on fine dust pollution
.
Strong wind can spread the pollutants quickly, and precipitation washes them out of the atmosphere, so that the fine dust pollution in the air decreases.
However, if there is little wind, pollutants can remain in the air for hours or even days and accumulate in the lower atmosphere.
New Year's fireworks are more polluting than Easter fires
According to Dauert, Easter fires do not increase particulate matter pollution as much as New Year's fireworks, for example, because they are burned at different times on the Easter weekend and also to a lesser extent.
On New Year's Eve, particulate matter emissions jump in the hours after midnight to 1,000 micrograms per cubic meter on an hourly average.
According to the UBA, this corresponds to
around one percent of the annual amount of fine dust released in Germany
.
For comparison: the particulate matter limit of 50 micrograms per cubic meter may not be exceeded more than 35 times a year in a region.
The permissible annual average is 40 micrograms per cubic meter.
Why is the Easter fire not forbidden?
According to the Federal Ministry for the Environment, limit values can be exceeded at times due to Easter fires.
However, particularly in northern Germany,
high particulate matter pollution is limited to just a few days a year
.
Therefore, the practice should not be banned.
From the Lower Saxony Ministry of the Environment it says: "The fine dust pollution has been at a low level for years." Easter fires would not cause these limit values to be exceeded.
The days on which the particulate matter limit is exceeded have been steadily decreasing for years.
Because of the corona pandemic, no Easter bonfires were possible for two years.
In 2019, too, some were canceled for safety reasons due to the drought.
In general, Easter bonfires are only allowed to burn under the conditions of the federal states or municipalities.
Specific time slots are set aside for this.
How to protect animals at the Easter fire
Animals such as rabbits, hedgehogs or shrews are particularly endangered by Easter fires if the material piled up days or weeks beforehand is burned directly.
Because they use the woodpile as a shelter and partial habitat, as Ursula Bauer from the animal protection association explains.
That is why it is often one of the requirements to rearrange the prepared wood before lighting it.
The German Nature Conservation Union (NABU) also advises stacking
sawn timber just before burning
.
This means that the animals have no chance of using the fuel as a roost.
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